05/15/2024

MCIT and TONOMUS Announce I.D.E.A. Initiative

The Ministry of Communications and Information Technology (MCIT) and TONOMUS, the NEOM-born cognitive technology company, announced The Immersive Digital Environments and Assets (I.D.E.A.) Initiative.
The initiative, originally showcased during a keynote presentation at LEAP 2024, is envisioned to propel the Saudi immersive technology sector among the leading nations and fuel the Kingdom’s digital economy ambitions as part of economic diversification, realizing Saudi Arabia’s vision 2030.

Through the initiative, MCIT, TONOMUS, and partners will work closely to activate a national partner network to engage policymakers, researchers, technology providers, and end users in the participatory design of ecosystem interventions. The initiative will create a unified strategic plan and activation roadmap across public- and private-sector partners to jumpstart immersive tech economy development as well as to develop a comprehensive solution blueprint for national immersive tech developments and establish standards to unite a diverse array of technology stakeholders.

MCIT and TONOMUS have already onboarded more than 15 potential partners across Saudi Arabia’s tech landscape and have issued a call to interested organizations to engage. For more information, interested parties can contact idea@mcit.gov.sa.

I.D.E.A. spans immersive experiences, virtual collaboration spaces, industrial digital twin and metaverse applications enabled by the convergence of several emerging technologies, including mixed reality, artificial intelligence (AI), three-dimensional (3D) modelling, and spatial computing, among others.

“The launch of this initiative is a testament to The Kingdom’s ambition to harness technology in building a thriving digital society and economy,” said MCIT Undersecretary for Technology Mohammed Alrobayan. “For MCIT, this initiative is directly aligned with our objectives of growing the technology sector and supporting localized technology development. The involvement of TONOMUS and our plan for this partner network reinforces MCIT’s support for collaboration across the public and private sectors. We want to be at the forefront of immersive technology and accelerate a new wave of digital transformation.”

“At the core,” said TONOMUS chief commercial officer Yousef Khalili,” this initiative is an effort to develop a local immersive tech ecosystem by driving technology adoption and supporting next-generation tech solutions. This partnership has been more than a year in the making and is based on a shared vision at the intersection of MCIT’s goal to unlock more value for the Kingdom through technology, and TONOMUS’ ambition to be a home-grown cognitive technology champion. TONOMUS is committed to developing innovative, next-generation technology solutions to propel Saudi organizations into the future.”